Politics- The Republican Victoria Spartz has beaten the Democrat Christina Hale in the race for control of Indiana's 5th Congressional District, according to Decision Desk HQ.
- The seat is currently held by Republican Rep. Susan Brooks, who announced last year that she would not be running for a fifth term.
- The district includes Indianapolis' northern and eastern suburbs as well as the cities of Carmel, Anderson, Marion, Noblesville, and Fishers.
- See the live coverage and full results from all US House elections.
The Republican Victoria Spartz has won against the Democrat Christina Hale in their race to represent Indiana's 5th Congressional District in the US House of Representatives.
The district is currently represented by Republican Rep. Susan Brooks, who in June 2019 announced her plans to retire rather than run for a fifth term.
The candidates
Hale is a former state representative for Indiana's 87th District, a title she held for four years. In 2016, she ran for lieutenant governor on the ticket with the gubernatorial nominee John Gregg but lost in the general election.
To win the Democratic nomination for the 5th District, Hale beat out several opponents including the Xerox executive Dee Thornton and the scientist Jennifer Christie. Hale's campaign platform centered on lowering healthcare costs, addressing climate change, and strengthening the economy.
Spartz, a state senator for Indiana's 5th District, is a founding member of the Hamilton County Tea Party and was the Hamilton County Republican Woman of the Year. She won a contested Republican primary of 15 candidates, in which she faced xenophobic attack ads from her fellow GOP candidate Beth Henderson regarding Spartz's Ukrainian ties.
On October 31, President Donald Trump endorsed Spartz on Twitter. Several months earlier, on August 17, Trump's son Donald Trump Jr. endorsed the candidate, also on Twitter.
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The district
Indiana's 5th Congressional District is located slightly north of the state's center, Indianapolis. The district includes parts of northern Indianapolis, the city's eastern and northern suburbs, as well as the cities of Carmel, Anderson, Marion, Noblesville, Fishers, and sections of Kokomo.
The district has traditionally leaned Republican, but it fits the profile of many of the suburban congressional districts with relatively high household median incomes and levels of college education that Democrats have won back in the Trump era.
While Trump carried the district by nearly 12 points in 2016, former Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly narrowly carried the district by a margin of 0.5 percentage points in his 2018 election bid despite losing statewide.
A spate of recent internal polls pointed to a competitive race in the district. An internal poll conducted for the conservative Club For Growth PAC by the Republican firm WPA Intelligence showed Spartz leading Hale by 7 points, 47% to 40%.
Since then, a Democratic internal poll conducted for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee showed Hale leading by 6 points, 50% to 44%, and the Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden, leading Trump by 13 points, 55% to 42%. Another poll conducted by the Global Strategy Group for the Democratic House Majority PAC showed Hale leading Spartz by 7 points, 47% to 40%, with the third-party Libertarian candidate Ken Tucker at 4% of the vote and Biden leading Trump by 8 points, 50% to 42%.
The money race
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Hale had both outraised and outspent Spartz as of October 14.
Campaign-finance filings show that Hale has raised $3.48 million, spent $3.1 million, and has a little over $308,700 in cash on hand. Spartz has $2.6 million in receipts, including over $1.2 she lent to her own campaign, has spent $2.2 million, and has about $448,000 in cash on hand.
What some of the experts say
The race between Hale and Spartz was previously rated as a "toss-up" by The Cook Political Report, "tilts Democratic" by Inside Elections, and "leans Democratic" by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.
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